Horse Racing

March 5, 2004 - Playing the Ponies at Earl Warren

Most people in Santa Barbara probably don’t even know that they can have a day at the races right here in town. It happens Wednesday through Sunday at the Earl Warren Show Grounds at 101 and Los Positas. There isn’t a racetrack at the Show Grounds. The arena there is the size of a small basketball stadium. But there are a couple of large satellite dishes that bring in live television feed (no 5 second delay) from races tracks throughout the country - Santa Anita, Golden Gate Fields, Oaklawn, and Aqueduct, to name a few.

You can buy a Daily Racing Form and a program at the entrance, place your bets on the computerized betting terminals, and watch the races on big screen televisions. Then, with a proper mix of handicapping skills and luck, you can win money. Sounds like fun, eh? Go Baby Go!

Yesterday the dedicated staff of edhat.com went to the races at the Showgrounds. We wanted to see how many people would be playing the ponies in the middle of the day in the middle of the week. We also were hoping to make a few bucks. The day before 3 different bettors (not in Santa Barbara) had cashed winning tickets of over $1.5 million! Maybe if we hit it big we could offer some really cool prizes next week!

Thursday is Senior’s Day at Earl Warren Showgrounds. Anyone over 55 can get in free. After quickly perusing the clientele, the dedicated staff determined that pretty much everyone must have gotten in free yesterday. Only the youthful dedicated staff had to fork over the 5-buck admission fee. Aside from being older, the clientele is also predominantly male. Only about 10% of the crowd was made up of fillies and mares. Baseball caps are prominent, so are jeans, windbreakers, stripes, and plaid. Losing tickets, shoulda-woulda-coulda excuses, and stories of near-riches are found in abundance.

Yesterday we were focused on the 7^th race at Santa Anita. For the tiebreaker in our daily contest we had asked our subscribers to pick the winner. The race was 6 ½ furlongs “down the hill” on the turf for fillies and mares four years old and up. A filly is a female horse under the age of four. A mare is the same thing only older. A furlong is 1/8 of a mile. Turf is another name for grass.

Ed bet $2 on Shoot

The favorite in the race was a horse named Shoot. She was trained by top trainer Bobby Frankel, and ridden by top jockey Alex Solis. Her odds were 2 to 1.

At the start of the race, Tender Teen rushed to the lead and held on to it into the stretch. Shoot was held back. Entering the stretch, Shoot was 9 lengths behind the leader. Then, Alex Solis asked her run.

“Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!” the Earl Warren crowd yelled. It was doubtful the horse could hear the shouting 120 miles away in Santa Anita. But, maybe she could. Because when the shouting started, Shoot took off like a ball of fire, blowing past the competition as if they were standing still. Her winning margin was a length and a half.

Quickly, the greatness of Shoot’s come-from-behind victory faded into memory like, like, like something you can’t remember – just another race of the thousands of races that Earl Warren patrons have seen in their lifetime. There was a race at Golden Gate Fields going off in 10 minutes. Who would win that one?

According to the cheerful Showgrounds management, a total of 121 people were watching the horses yesterday. 88 of them were seniors. It seems that in the over 55 crowd, betting horses is a lot more popular than running!

Only PennyEd correctly guessed the attendance and the winner. PennyEd wins free movie tickets. The proper movie, of course, would be Seabiscuit.

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